M Helsdon

Their main issues are injury and death, both usually repairable.

Yes, I have seen and used that. However, my reading is that the sorb vision isn't just mounted on the crossbow. Will have to reread. I am awaiting for approval to continue. The first thing I will do are the maps. There's a subsection of about 450 words about them.

And it's still growing. I really like Safelster...

That's the first draft of 'Men of the West' completed, coming in at 74,454 words not counting the index. With the index it is 99 pages. If it is cleared to proceed will start generating maps and illustrations - probably needs four maps and about thirty sketches.

The majority of Orlanthi clans are unlikely to do this as raids are usually to capture valuable cattle, and stealing children is far too likely to initiate a blood feud. However, some Orlanthi clans do specialize in slave taking, for example the Tarshite city of Slavewall, as its name denotes, is the site of a major slave market dealing with captives from as far away as Balazar and Prax. It was founded during the reign of King Yarandros by a war clan who subjugated their neighbors, making them their thralls, and then encouraged these thrall clans to assist in their slave raids lest their own kin be sold. It is, however, probably rare, as if the neighboring clans have the sense to drop their own disputes, they will briefy unite to exact revenge on the slave-takers, and either destroy them or drive them away. Stealing cattle is one thing, stealing children something very different.

The ruling warrior nobility is heavily Westernized worshipping a henotheistic cult of the Invisible God and practice sorcery, but many also worship Jonat as a divine ancestor, and Humakt, Orlanth, Talor, Urox, and Vorthan[1] as War Gods. The nobility is divided into cruelly pragmatic War Clans each aided by sorcerers, and rules over the majority Orlanthi peasant population. During the Ban they reduced the surrounding clans of farmers and herders to bondage as helots or forced them to submit to their authority, extracting tribute and service. Revolts are ruthlessly suppressed. The commoners mostly maintain their traditional Orlanthi practices[2] and his cult enjoys a revival among the elite after the Hero Garundyer of Ralios brings about an alliance of King Congern of Jonatela with King Kocholang of Lankst. [1] An Underworld God of War and the Red Planet, the twin brother of the Blue Moon who the Enjoreli worshiped as Croesia; he is known elsewhere as Shargash, Tolat, and Zolan. He spends half his time in the Second Hell, and half in the Sky. Worship of Vorthan is primitive and savage, with blood sacrifice, including the sacrifice of captured foemen. The Red God is ancient in the northwest, possibly dating back to the Enjoreli Bull People and the days of the Eleven Beasts Alliance. Western sources claim he is the son of Ehilm, the Sun God and Nakala, the Goddess of Darkness. Vorthan is depicted as a scowling old man with black skin with a red jewel embedded in his brow. For the Jonatlings and other hill barbarians of Fronela, Vorthan, whilst cruel, is not the foe of Orlanth as Jagrekriand or Shargash are for the Heortlings. [2] See The Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass for details of Orlanthi warfare, and their arms and armor.

Quite possible, but so far as I can tell, many of the hundred gods of war have been lost or forgotten since the God Time, and that is probably a very good thing, as they are probably demonic in nature, not nice demons of another pantheon you don't like, but of Chaos. When I have the first draft complete I will approach Chaosium for permission to continue, as, like The Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass it is loaded with their intellectual properties. I don't want to start illustrating it to find that it can't go anywhere. Should also note that prior to starting this project I didn't feel I understood the West, in part due to the presentation in the RQ3 Glorantha box. Now I think I do, to a degree, and it fits with the Bronze Age/Iron Age feel of central Genertela.

Totally non-canonical, and the wording may be changed but my current project includes: The ruling warrior nobility is heavily Westernized worshipping a henotheistic cult of the Invisible God and practice sorcery, but many also worship Jonat as a divine ancestor, and Humakt, Orlanth, Talor, Urox, and Vorthan[1] as War Gods. [1] An Underworld God of War and the Red Planet, the twin brother of the Blue Moon who the Enjoreli worshiped as Croesia; he is known elsewhere as Shargash and Tolat. He spends half his time in the Second Hell, and half in the Sky. Worship of Vorthan is primitive and savage, with blood sacrifice, including the sacrifice of captured foemen. The Red God is ancient in the northwest, possibly dating back to the Enjoreli Bull People. Western sources claim he is the son of Ehilm, the Sun God and Nakala, the Goddess of Darkness. Vorthan is depicted as a scowling old man with black skin with a red jewel embedded in his brow. For the Jonatlings and other hill barbarians of Fronela, Vorthan, whilst cruel, he is not the foe of Orlanth like Jagrekriand or Shargash are for the Heortlings. His cult may be a survival from the days of the Eleven Beasts Alliance.

There are no Brithini knights because as I understand it, they were all infantry, but, let's see, about 1,600 words on the Brithini holari. The Brithini holari are frightening in their experience, their skills, and the amount of wizardry used to strengthen them, their weapons, and their armor... In Third Age terms, suspect each one would have the fighting ability of a Hero or Demigod. Must admit that when I visualize a Brithini holari I tend to see warriors something like the alfar in Charles Stross' The Nightmare Stacks (but without the pointed ears).

Started proofreading 'Men of the West' - found I started using terms such as cataphract and knight too early, resulting in minor rewrites, and then had some ideas for the Orlanthi regions of Ralios... Both of which mean, that instead of getting smaller, it has grown by about a thousand words.

Just need to proofread, index and illustrate... [It is in the state 'Armies & Enemies' was in about fifteen months ago...] The History sections are mostly military history, with sections on particular historical armies, heroes etc.

You'd have to ask Chaosium. I know this was being looked into.

First draft almost done, just Army Lists to add. 76 pages. Started proofreading it and taking out duplications and fixing contradictions. The Ralios chapter is still too short, only about 12 pages, when Seshnela gets 22 and Fronela 17. Have moved stuff around to split the 'Argat Saga' between two chapters. It's weird: have read a bit about the West in Glorantha, but in actually writing about it, all sorts of things have occurred to me. Many doubtless wrong, but all sorts of coincidences and interesting 'facts' are apparent. Not certain if I read it somewhere, but writing/reading about the Seshnelan Martial Beast cults and Ralian mercenaries, realised that there are Martial Beast regiments in Safelster even if they aren't identified as such - Ethilrist may have been a sort of Hrestoli, but the original name of his regiment is awfully suggestive, White Horses being associated with the Sun (and Ralios of old having male and female Sun Horse cults), and of course he raided Hell to steal some of the Sun's Black Horses - the Solar herd that went demonic in the Underworld... Far too many footnotes, but things that aren't entirely relevant to the main text keep on appearing, and they add to the background. References to concubine-dancers in one of Jeff's art direction posts has triggered some thoughts about just how the legacy of the Serpent Kings isn't as buried as the fundamentalist Rokari would like. Just wish a book I've ordered from India would arrive...

There are pictures of arms and armor, and a fair number of sketches of people having a variety of equipment. Well, there's certainly some... The RQ Kickstarter "Unpublished Scenarios and Source Material" included the manuscript for the intended West and Sorcery rules (by Charlie Krank?), and whilst there is some interesting material in it, canon has moved on. I have made some use of it, but it is very obviously a draft.

Working through Ralios... Now at about seventy pages. Naturally, Seshnela has the largest chapter. King Guilmarn demanded it. Before starting this I had little impression of just how distinct the cultures of Seshnela, Fronela, and Ralios are, or just how many echoes of ancient cultures there are. May have to add a chapter about western Maniria. Have had to cover the West's religions in some detail, and have realised just how much Arkat's campaigns affected the military traditions of not just the West but central Genertela as well... Of course this is all YGWV. The other thing that has struck me is just how interesting the First Age West would be as a setting...

Based on the draft I have seen, it does for the religions of Glorantha, what the Guide does for the world of Glorantha.

Even for a 'water empire' Egypt was in many ways atypical, if you compare it with those in Mesopotamia or China (or India, though we don't really know very much about the Indus culture), if you take the view that its culture was homogeneous and its history fairly static. Neither of those statements are true, the closer you look it them, and the periods of its pyramid building and chariot armies were a very small chunk of its history; there was also an awful lot of regional variation between the nomes. There may not be a great river surrounded by desert, but in many ways, Fonrit is a bit Egyptian. There was certainly a pyramid in the HQ game at Shepherds Bush a few weeks ago, and the cult of Gark the Calm certainly has plenty of restless dead.

Been reading (skimming) Plato's Republic and doing serious paraphrasing and summarizing. Gives quite an insight on Loskalm, and it is apparent that the Seshnelan 'Codes of War', for all the Rokari detest Hrestol, must be derived from The Book of Hrestol (different versions, probably). Interesting parallels with ancient Indian rules about dharma yuddha, just war, and those were probably implemented as often as Plato's - as in, never.

They get a (brief) mention, but I can only come up with about twenty war cults that seem possible for the region so there won't be a list. The KoW gets about three quarters of a page, which covers both of its incarnations... 😉

I suspect not, as that's only a partial transformation. The Tawari and other bull-riders don't seem to have been Hsunchen, even if that's how the Akemites classified them. Urox himself fathered the first bull-headed minotaur upon a daughter of Uleria, or perhaps upon Velhara or Orunatawara (a cow goddess), or even Eiritha, as myths vary. And Urox/Bisos was a descendant of Tawar. One thing that has struck me in reading up on events in the First Age is that it would be a really interesting game setting, far more so than, perhaps, the Second Age. More magical, and more mysterious, until things go bad with the birth of Nysalor.

That's my thought as well, and for the Horse People in Ralios, where a few lineages might have had Hsunchen-appearing capabilities, but the majority weren't Hsunchen. The Westerners classified all the indigenous peoples Hsunchen, much as they thought Elder Races they weren't familiar with as Krjalki. Both the Tawari and Enerali have footnotes about this. At the moment I am trying to get material typed up, and will think about organisation later. The current format doesn't quite work because Seshnela is pretty much all one culture (split between noble knights and War Societies), and Brithos is a single culture, whereas Fronela and Ralios are more complicated, so the subsection leveling isn't the same - something I need to resolve.

I am presently writing the A&EoDP sequel (which may never be finished) and have found it isn't difficult to find (make up) more about the major Hsunchen. In the case of bull and horse riders, there was an essay I cut from A&E, which with minor changes, fits very well. Reading the Guide, there are things that are very easy to expand upon. Most of the bull and horse-riders didn't go extinct, they became either Western dronari, or in greater numbers Orlanthi. At the moment I have about three pages on the major Hsunchen, four or five on Brithos (about three specifically about the horali), about ten on Seshnela (about three pages on knights and War Societies each), and have started on Fronela (having about a page on Jonatela).

Well, it seems very ancient. Thank you for this. I have decided to mention the Losk-Alim, though via an obscure text. Similar pretences are used in The Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass, where there's a fascinating snippet, but its canonicity is suspect.

Looking through the forum, there are a few references to a bull-riding people (related to the Tawari?) called the Losk-Alim, from which the name Loskalm is derived. However, I can find no references to these people (apparently allied with Talor) in any available source. Can anyone tell me anything of them?

Am still working on 'Men of the West' Seshnela chapter. Am avoiding details of sorcery 'schools' because I know those are under development. Now about 38 pages (Brithos, Hsunchen, Seshnela) and the more I 'discover' [make up] the less medieval Europe Seshnela seems, even with its feudal system (and there have been several non-European feudal systems). Of course the semi-tropical coastal climate is a factor, and I have just had fun writing about Seshnelan fortifications, which differ in construction from those detailed in Armies & Enemies for central Genertela. One of the Kickstarter RQ special books had a very faint and barely readable pencil diagram of one of Arkat's battles, which contributes to what Seshnegi knights were like. If I am reading it correctly, they rode over troops on their own side to get at the enemy... One of those books has a single page of Arkat, Gerlant, and Talor approaching Kartolin mounted on goats. Am wondering if that fragment is what has been mentioned to me as Talor's Saga, as he certainly laughs a lot. I probably need to start thinking about Fronela next. There's significant detail in the Guide, so will have to see how much needs to be invented.